1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for extending sleep cycles in machine-to-machine (M2M) devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cell phone industry continues to experience exponential growth, not only in this country, but all over the world. In fact, it is well known that over twenty percent of the adult population in the United States does not have a traditional landline telephone. In addition, is it well known that nearly ninety percent of the adult population owns a wireless phone regardless of whether they have a landline or not.
Furthermore, the usage of cell phones continues to increase over the use of traditional landline telephone coverage. In fact, one in seven adults now uses only cell phones. Whereas in the past cell phones were used when a landline was not available or under emergency conditions, lower carrier rates, affordability of family packages, and free mobile-to-mobile or friend-to-friend promotions have fostered in significant increases in usage. It is not uncommon today to walk into any public forum or facility and notice a majority of the people there talking (or texting) on their cell phones.
The ability to communicate using a mobile phone, or mobile station, has been available since the middle of the previous century. However, during the 1990's so-called “2G” or second generation mobile phone systems were provided that began the growth in both deployment and usage that we currently enjoy today. These initial systems predominately provided for the routing and reliable servicing of voice calls between parties. And the foundation provided by these systems addresses the timing and latency requirements associated with transmission and reception of voice data in order to maintain quality of service. As such, so-called circuit switched voice links have been fielded that guarantee this quality of service.
And although wireless cellular network technologies have continued to provide improvements related to the ability to process voice calls, there has also been an enormous pull on the industry to provide for the reliable and efficient transfer of packetized data. As a result, the incremental developments in high speed packetized data networks have not always tracked with the development of voice networks. It is a goal within the industry to field a more unified solution that would provide both reliable voice and high speed data access, however, the industry is not at that point presently. Consequently, it is common practice to field a mobile system that provides for voice communications over one type of circuit switched network, say cdma200 1×RTT, and high speed data communications over another type of network, say LTE, which provides exclusively for packetized data and does not provide the quality of service that users prefer to support voice communications. In the near future, these hybrid solutions will be prevalent within the art.
In more recent times, the use of cellular networks has expanded to include so-called machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, where remote devices (absent a user typically) are monitored and controlled by the transmission and reception of data over the cellular networks. Consider that a security system may include a motion-activated video camera, and the system may utilize a given cellular network to transmit video to a network operations center. M2M devices are ubiquitous and support the automation of processes in a wide variety of industries including transportation, security, shipping, healthcare, finance, building management, utilities, and construction.
But like mobile phones, a significant number of M2M devices run on batteries or other limited power sources. In addition, the M2M devices draw a significant amount of power associated with elements (e.g., radio frequency (RF) transceivers, power amplifiers, etc.) that are employed to communicate over wireless communications links. Moreover, unlike mobile phones, M2M devices exhibit a wide range of times when they are required to communicate over the links. For example, one M2M device may require communications every 30 seconds, while another may only communicate once per day, and a third M2M device may only be required to communicate once per month. Accordingly, the present inventors have observed that there are no provisions in wireless communication standards and specifications that enable a given M2M device to affect a power saving mode of operation for an extended period of time.
Consequently, what is needed is a technique that enables M2M devices coupled to a cellular network to request and enter into an extended sleep mode.
Furthermore, what is needed is a mechanism for requesting an extended power saving period for an M2M device coupled to a cellular network, where the period is prescribed in a request over the cellular network.